How Much Should You Actually Spend On Your Wedding?

Just a thought but definitely a pertinent one!

Love it or not, we’re nearing the end of the year and you know what that means, festive season aka shaadi season has officially kicked off!

Love – because it’s a cause for celebration – rasms, music, dances, food, mithai and just the sheer joy of seeing two people enter into a lifelong journey together, all bring a lot of pleasure. You get to dress up, catch up with relatives and long-lost friends, over-satisfy your taste buds with a range of delicacies and truly indulge in a quintessentially desi celebration spread across several days.

Cheesy, right?

Well, don’t just let your heart melt away because there might be a dark side to it, one we tend to oversee most of the times.

Unapologetically Extra

More than a cause for sharing happiness with one’s family and friends, increasingly, weddings in Pakistan are becoming more about showcasing grandeur and money. With the dawn of designer lawn in everyday life and the advent of fashion weeks in Pakistan, weddings have also become larger than life affair for many. Not just regarding who wears what, but also who plays at the wedding, whose wedding was more unique, and even who performs on what song. It has become more of a rat race rather than a celebration of a union.

Almost all of us have been invited by a friend to their dance practices months before their actual wedding is set to take place. Dance performances on mehndi are taken so seriously that wedding choreography has suddenly popped up as a viable career option for many dance enthusiasts around us. Not just the dance part, even the bride’s entry, the area she’s going to enter from, the number of people accompanying her, the carriage she’s going to make the entrance in, the background music she’s going to walk down on, all are carefully choreographed moves at weddings now. Not to take anything away from the preparation and efforts, but this all can be done in a simple and needless to say cheaper way.

Even more than the stress over dance performances, attention is given to the hall décor. Event management companies sure are making a fortune by providing a larger than life outlook to weddings with their innovative arrangements of flowers, mirrors, and furniture. Families are willing to spend a fortune for a mere two-hour ceremony.

With the desire to create picture-perfect moments, weddings are turning into fully directed plays void of candidness and real emotions. From bridesmaid/best man accessories, bridal makeup to photography, to event management, the variety of packages available for the betrothed is amusing at the least and confusing at best. But the pressure of meeting internalized expectations makes folks opt for offers like drone videography. They want to do it all in the 2-hour window because of the precedent set by previous weddings.

And who can forget extravagant bridal showers and while we don’t mind the thoughtfulness and emotion behind it, people tend to go way overboard in terms of frugality. This is when people start to follow trends blindly without thinking rationally about their budget.

More is not always merrier

While the wealthier, more affluent families keep spending a fortune on details, the lower classes folks are getting crushed under this over-hyped premise of a new-age fun wedding in Pakistan. However, worry not people, we hear you a hundred percent.

Thankfully, people have started to celebrate their individuality and break free from the norms – finally the concept of simpler weddings is budding. We are entirely on board with the idea and so should you!

Budget your wedding and spend smartly. Invest in the future rather than waste money on a two-hour ceremony. Remember, the purpose of this celebration is to support the couple entering a new phase of life, so better to support them with a more significant financial contribution than burn your savings on the perfect stage setting. Get them housewarming presents or contribute to their honeymoon trip, whichever way you like. Or better yet, the bride and groom can save the money for more fulfilling experiences, such as traveling!

For those concerned with looking your best on the special day, worry not, for there are always cheaper, yet equally graceful, options available for your dream jora. We would recommend saving on the dress and jewellery by getting them custom made from local markets rather than donning a designer lehnga that is going to make you look overdressed in possibly any other event you attend. Or better yet, go vintage. Refurbish your mom’s bridal dress and get going.

Also, save on photography. Hire a friend with a DSLR for photography and then get printouts in HD. Yes, we now live in a technologically advanced age!

Another critical piece of advice we want to put out there for you: appreciate negative space. Yes, royal sofas are beautiful, gigantic drapery is nice, pearls and mirrors are too, but not all together. Choose one design element and play with it rather than showcasing everything you can think of under one marquee. In other words; declutter. While we’re at it, explore the idea of saving paper and sending e-invites only as well.

The world of design is moving towards simplicity, and so should you. Be the trendsetter for simpler weddings, because pricier ones are so last season. So get on with it and do it nicely. Most important of all, enjoy a stress-free celebration. Rest assured, everything will fall into place.